Chapter 3 - Still Hurting

"Lulu's Pie Shop?"

Those were the words on the pink box in front of me. I woke up about ten minutes ago to the sound of Scorbunny begging Stella for pie, which then had me wanting pie, because that thing looked good. It had a purple jelly filling and was topped with blueberries and bacon. Yes, bacon. Whoever made this pie must have been having a hell of a day to come up with this. But if Stella shoveling it into her mouth and barely chewing it is anything to go off of, they might be on to something.

"Yes." Stella responded with a mouth full of pie.

"Where'd you get that?" I asked, "I haven't seen a pie shop around here."

Arceus, I wish I had found someplace like that here. No disrespect to Magnolia's cooking, but even she cannot save Galarian cuisine from being the blandest food you've ever tasted. Just the smell of that pie was making me drool, I want.

"Why are you even here?" She ignored me.

"I live here." I jingled the keys to the lab in front of her face.

"Of course you do." She sighed.

"You gonna answer me or what?" I asked.

She shoved another spoonful of pie into her mouth, "My parents were in Hammerlocke. This was in the fridge when I woke up."

"So you stole their pie and walked an hour to eat it here?" I asked.

"No, I stole their pie and called a cab to eat it here." She said, not waiting to swallow before speaking, but it doesn't bother me; I don't think manners are part of Galarian culture.

Called a cab? She called a cab?

"You called a cab? Why didn't we call a—"

"Storm fucked up all the roads that day." She said.

She really hates it when I finish my sentences. She tossed a piece of bacon at Scorbunny, who gobbled it up in less than a second. Rocky attempted to grab it midair, but failed horrendously. In his defense, jumping that high is an impressive feet for his weight. That's the only nice thing I can say about his less than graceful fall.

"Where's my piece?" I asked.

"In Hammerlocke."

"Please?"

"No." She said.

"Stella!" The professor called out from the library in the back. I couldn't even see her behind all of the bookshelves.

Stella heaved a sigh and said, "Fine." She slid the box towards my side of the table, "Cut yourself a slice."

"You have so much trust in me." I commented.

"I'm watching you." She said, "That's still my pie."

I'm not exactly the most graceful person, but I didn't consider myself clumsy until this moment. It should not be this hard to cut a pie, especially when the inside is just purple goop. Somehow my hands had ended up covered in purple jelly after about a minute of me fumbling around with the butter knife. I guess the only thing it takes to get Stella to talk to you is to be an idiot, then she'll be so annoyed at you that she has no choice but to speak up.

"Why are you using a butter knife?" She asked.

Oh.

That's a good point. Why am I using a butter knife? I guess I just thought sharp knives were only for fruits and vegetables. If I said that out loud though, Stella would tear into me like a hungry Poochyena.

"Why not?"

"Does that look like butter to you?"

"No, but I'm sure there was butter involved in it's creation." I retorted.

She facepalmed, "Arceus, I'll just do it."

She stood up and yanked out a large kitchen knife from the knife holder on the counter so violently that I flinched. She walked back over to the pie and sliced into the opposite side of where I was trying to cut it. It makes sense, it was unsalvageable, even for a professional pie cutter like herself. She placed the slice of pie onto a small glass plate with a fork and placed it in front of me.

"There."

"Thank you madam." I joked, she didn't like it.

Whatever, not everyone can understand my comedic genius. I tried my best to not eat like a Lechonk, but what can I say, Galarian culture is rubbing off on me. At least there were plenty of napkins. That pie was without a doubt the best thing I've had since I got here, thought the sample pool isn't very big considering the only thing's I've had are toast sandwiches and canned beans with peaches. The latter tastes better than you'd think, but the toast sandwich tastes exactly how you would expect. I'm not sure if peaches and beans is a Galarian dish, it has flavor so I'm leaning towards no, but if it is, I suppose that's a point in the Galar column. It only took them four days to score a point. Maybe. Sadly, I will have to erase that point. Toast sandwich, really? I almost thought the professor was just playing a joke on me when she made it, honestly I still think she might have been. I asked Stella if that was a real thing people ate, she said yes, but she's not exactly the most reliable source so I'm still conflicted. At least it was buttered, but that's not going to help. It gets absolutely no mercy from me. 0/10, would only try again if my life depended on it.

Anyway, after the pie debacle, I was dismayed by the news that I had work to do today. Magnolia informed me that she was working on getting me an ID to enter the gym challenge. I hadn't really thought about it, but it makes sense. How am I going to register if I'm not even a real person, in the eyes of the Galarian government that is. That wasn't the bad part, though; the bad part was the news that apparently what I had bought at the Pokemart wasn't enough. She handed me a list of items I would need to buy and the money to buy them. Unfortunately, Stella wouldn't be there to guide my way today. She didn't tell me where she was going, as usual, but I got the sense that it was important to her so I didn't pry. At least I now knew how to get there, but man, I need a phone. GPS would be a lifesaver.

I released Rocky to keep me company, I hoped that maybe his yapping could replace Stella's yapping. But for some fucking reason, he decided to stay quiet the one time I wanted him to talk.

"So do you just like pissing me off?" I opened the door to the shop. The smalls bells above the door rang as the employee working at the register greeted me.

He looked taken aback, as if he didn't know what he was doing. Instead of retorting like he usually would, he just went back to idly staring in front of him. Little guys got a few screws loose, whatever. I'll deal with it later. Included on Magnolias list were medicines like burn heals, poison heals, and something called a full heal. She told me that one was for her though. I thought I was shopping for myself, but most of the things on the list were for her. I guess I should have looked at it before I left. I don't mind though, I might end up needing those medicines, and I would rather have them and not need them than need them and not have them. Not included on her list, however, was a wallet. Now, I don't currently have much use for a wallet, but I would someday right? Really, the only reason I was even thinking about this was because of the silliest thing I had seen in Galar thus far. Yes, even sillier than Toast Sandwiches. It was a wallet in the shape of the face of a Lickitung sticking out it's tongue. It was so stupid, I had to buy it. I just had to. Just look at it! It's making the dumbest face ever. The discovery that part of the tongue was hanging off the bottom of the wallet only solidified my decision on the matter.

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Holy shit, when you open it, it looks like the Lickitung is opening its mouth. Oh my god, even the zipper above the ID pouch ID is shaped like a little tongue. This wallet is getting better by the second; whoever made this thing is a genius. People around the store were looking at me weird for laughing at the thing as if they didn't also think it was hilarious. Whatever, it's their loss; they don't have a Lickitung wallet. This was far and away the best purchase I've made in Galar, probably ever, I don't think anything I could've bought in my past life could top this. I was still chuckling when I placed all the items on the counter for the cashier to scan. He let out a small exhale when he saw the wallet. At least someone understands. I walked out of the store a new man, a better man, the man with the best wallet in all of Galar. I put it in my front pocket; there was no way I was letting it out of my sight for even a second, lest anyone become jealous and want to steal it. Which, let's be honest, is so extremely likely.

Rocky seemed to be confused by my excitement. I think he even went as far as to suggest that it wasn't as cool as I was making it out to be. And I wasn't going to entertain any of his antics right now. Yeah, I was complaining that he wasn't saying anything less than 30 minutes ago, but that was the me before I got this wallet. I put him back into his Pokéball and started my walk back to the lab. Today wasn't as cold as it was the past two days, meaning my sweatshirt was actually enough to keep me insulated. Unfortunately, my sweatshirt was not going to save me from the crowd of people running at Mach speeds towards Arceus knows where. Is there some sort of marathon going on? No, I don't think so, I don't see any numbers on their chests. That's about as far as my detective abilities go. I've never been downtown, so as far as I know, all of these people are running straight into the void. I had a very brief collision with one of them. They didn't even offer me an apology. I made sure to let them know how I felt, and by that I mean I shouted a few incoherent curses before returning to my feet. That's the second time I've been knocked on my ass in three days, I don't like this trend.

After making sure I still had my wallet, I continued walking towards the lab. Maybe the professor could explain to me what's going on over there. I could've followed them, but I really wanted to show the professor my wallet. There were a lot less people on the walk back then the walk there, they were probably all gone downtown to see whatever it was that was going down. When I got to the lab, the professor was in the back working on my Dynamax band. I placed down all the things she instructed me to buy on the kitchen table before going back there to greet her.

"Hey Professor, look at my wallet!"

She turned away from whatever it was she was doing to the wishing star.

"It's... funny." She said.

"I know right?" I said, "Hope you don't mind I spent some of the money to buy it."

She turned back to her work, "It's quite alright dear."

"I bought the stuff you needed," I said, "What'd you need all that stuff for anyway?"

"It's for the Pokémon in the enclosure." She said, I didn't even know there were Pokémon back there. I just sort of assumed it was a greenhouse, "They can get a bit rowdy."

"Ah."

I felt a shiver go down my spine. I wondered, for no particular reason, what Stella would be doing in about five hours, probably nothing interesting.

---

She liked this hill. It gave her a nice vantage point of all of Postwick and Wedgehurst. It wasn't an especially pretty sight though, even when the sky wasn't completely overcast and the wind wasn't trying to make you fall. She couldn't remember a time that she didn't have this hill to come to, but much like the nuisance that had invaded her life two days ago, she didn't remember much of anything these days. The last five years were all a blur of dark rooms and sleepless nights. There were many sleepless nights. She only remembered what really mattered.

Imagine a wilting flower, alone, dying slowly in a vase full of other thriving flowers. It was once a beautiful, imperfect, but beautiful thing. Now its stem is drooping down; it'll never feel the warmth of the sun bearing down on its face ever again; it's not like the sun ever shone here anyway. Someone might try to save it, to put color back into it's petals, but no one will. No one will because no one cares. After all, if the rest are perfect, why wouldn't you just remove the one causing you trouble? The answer was clear to her, but this wasn't her; these were the flowers she had purchased yesterday. She could see them sitting on his grave even from all the way up here. Purple tulips, that was his favorite color. She didn't know if he had a favorite flower. Probably not. She should have asked.

She could see a singular tulip in the middle of the bouquet wilting, after only a day of sitting there. Why that one? Why were the others sill in pristine condition? She had the thought to go down there and just pluck the damn thing herself, but she wouldn't. Not only would she have to climb back uphill, but she would also have to go back into the cemetery. She hated that place. Her father told her it wasn't a place to be afraid of; it was a place to remember, to reflect. Obviously, she thought. She wasn't afraid of a cemetery, what was there to be afraid of. Ghosts? Yes, ghosts, but cemetery ghosts are friendly for the most part.

Reflect, what a stupid idea, as if that would make her feel any better. She knew what she needed to do, and it started in Motostoke. Scorbunny's Pokéball felt heavy in her hand; it felt wrong, using the bunny to go on a faux journey across the region, but it was what she needed to do; it was the only way to repent, not reflect. His dream was now her dream, and that's the way it has to be, no matter how much she may dislike the idea. Maybe it didn't have to be all bad, she told herself. it might be nice to see somewhere that wasn't Postwick or Wedgehurst. But the last time she had was five years ago, and memories of that time, as few as there may be, made her rip her hair out and scream into her pillow, or at other people in the case that there wasn't a pillow around. She wondered sometimes what people thought of her, not that it mattered of course.

Still hurting. Why are you still hurting?

No one had ever actually asked her that question, maybe because normal people felt empathy. She didn't, not for the last five years at least. But she asked herself that question every day. Why? Just let go, it would be so much easier, but that wouldn't change a thing. It wouldn't change the fact that she woke up every morning wishing it were her, it wouldn't speed the time, and it wouldn't change the fact that she was still hurting, and she always would be. Something wonderful died five years ago, and he wouldn't come back no matter how much she wept. She felt a tear. She blinked once, she blinked twice, it was gone. She had done all the crying she needed to on the day of the storm.

She felt a raindrop fall on his hat, as if she had conjured it up by just thinking about rain. Maybe it would be a light drizzle, she thought, but she knew better than that. It would be pouring sooner rather than later, and she needed to be inside when it did. The last time she came home soaking wet, her father reprimanded her as her mother attempted to dry her off with a towel. Her mind wasn't on them, it rarely was. She should call a cab; make it back to the professor's laboratory before the downpour starts. If she was lucky, it would last all night and she could stay there instead of at her house. Unfortunately, that meant she would have to deal with that pest. She groaned, but accepted it; he was much easier to deal with than her parents were.

He had been much less annoying then he had been the day she first met him, but didn't mean she liked him, she merely tolerated him. The thought of travelling with him made her stomach churn, though that could also be because the only thing she had eaten today was a few slices of pie.

Arceus, she wanted more pie.

---

"Stella!" I shouted.

Finally, I was so bored. There was nothing to do with all this rain. Granted, I wouldn't be going outside either way on account of not wanting to freeze to death. The only thing I had to entertain myself was Rocky and a deck of cards that he both didn't know how to use, and would be to impatient to learn how to play anything. I would have asked the professor, but she was still hard at work on that Dynamax Band. Stella walked through the door with a frown on her face like always and her Scorbunny at her side. Her hoodie was only slightly wet, and her green beret-looking hat was completely dry; she had put on her hood over it to keep it safe.

"You're here." She said.

"Where else would I be?" I asked.

She shrugged, "I was hoping not here."

"Mean." I said.

The professor called out from the back, "Stella? What are you doing here?"

"My house was too far; figured I'd wait out the rain here." She said.

Sure, I buy it. Actually, do I? Couldn't she have just gotten a ride directly to her house? The professor also seemed to be suspicious, based on her response, which was just a simple 'hm'. Whatever; it doesn't matter to me. She walked directly to the fridge and grabbed the box of what was left of her pie. I was tempted to eat some of it, but she strikes me as the type of person to immediately know when someone has touched their food.

I was right.

She opened the box and examined it's contents, "You didn't eat any of it?"

"Nope."

She placed the box on the table, "That's surprising."

"Do you think so low of me?"

"Yes." She grumbled.

I was hoping that maybe my selfless act of basic manners would be enough to convince her to give me some more. I was wrong. I think deep down I already knew that I was wrong, but I can be hopeful right? She devoured the thing in a matter of minutes; I guess she was hungry. She also gave some of the bacon to Scorbunny, and Rocky actually managed to steal some of it this time, kind of. He just gobbled up a stray piece Stella had thrown that Scorbunny hadn't noticed.

Off topic, but that olive tree that I saw on my first day here; it was gone now. I tried to ask the professor about it, but she told me that she didn't know what I was talking about. I also told Stella about it, she told me the same thing, but I know for a fact that she also saw it. Alright, olive tangent over, let's keep talking about my wallet.

"What'd you think about my wallet?" I placed it on the table next to her pie.

She took a look at it and snorted, "That's the dumbest thing I've ever seen."

That was a genuine reaction, it was different from everything else I've heard her say. She smiled, if only for a moment. That's good right?